Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Never say protest marches don’t work!

SEVERAL
thousand peace activists marched through London last Saturday to demand an end
to British, American and French threats of military action against Syria.

In Trafalgar Square

But
this march was different to thousands of other peace matches that have trod the
streets of London for the last 60 years – it was a march with the victory of a
war at least postponed if not completely prevented to celebrate.

And
the morale of the marchers was high because of it, because of the vote in
Parliament last Thursday 29th August when a majority MPs voted against the
principle that Britain should join an American military strike against Syria –
leaving prime Minister Cameron red-faced, angry and defeated.

Thirty
members of his own party had opposed the motion and another 30 had abstained.

Labour
MPs had all supported Ed Miliband’s stance that no war could be endorsed until
there was solid proof that the Syrian government was behind the recent nerve
gas attack on civilians in Damascus.

But
that vote had an international impact; Barak Obama, feeling suddenly
politically isolated, announced that he would not take any action until
Congress had been allowed to vote on the matter – a process that could take a
long time.

The
French government has also been obliged to consult its legislature. And since
enthusiasm for another war in the Middle East is extremely low in both those
countries it is quite possible the war may have been prevented. The peace
movements in France and America are strong and encouraged by the vote in
Westminster.

Evidence
is now emerging from the Associated Press news agency that the nerve gas may
have been released accidentally by opposition rebels in Damascus – the very
people who are being armed and funded by the US, Britain and Saudi Arabia – who
were supplied with tubular gas bottles that they had never seen before from the
Saudis and accidently activated them while examining them, killing many of
their own colleagues.

Speaker
after speaker in Trafalgar Square, at the end of last Saturday’s Hands Off
Syria march, stressed the historic significance of last Thursday’s
parliamentary vote – and of Stop the War’s role in bringing it about.

Lindsey
German said: “This time, enough MPs had the guts to vote against another
intervention. Their arguments and information were influenced by a strong
public opinion against such a war, itself a product of a mass movement which
didn’t stop a war 10 years ago but has prevented a further one now.

“To
all our regret we didn’t stop the war on Iraq, but that tide of anti-war
opinion has made itself felt again in the past few days.

“For
once, MPs reflected that majority public opinion in the country and Cameron has
been forced to admit that he will no longer join any such attack and that
Britain will play no part in any Syrian intervention.

“The
vote was a defeat not just for the British government but the whole system of
western imperialism that has relied on the US/British alliance, symbolised most
grotesquely in the Blair-Bush partnership that was determined to invade both
Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11.”

Andrew
Murray told the crowd that Parliament has not voted down a war in over 200
years.

But
the consensus of all the speakers was the message that all the peace marches,
meetings and campaigning have been worthwhile – a war has been prevented.